Blizzard Previews the Heart of Azeroth that Players Will Receive When BfA Launches - World of Warcra

SBFord

Blizzard Previews the Heart of Azeroth that Players Will Receive When BfA Launches - World of Warcraft - MMORPG.com

World of Warcraft News - The centerpiece of World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth is the Heart of Azeroth necklace that players will receive almost immediately after the expansion launches. They will receive the necklace after assisting Magni Bronzebeard with the healing of Azeroth herself. Players will be able to empower it with Azerite to "awaken" four other armor pieces that can be equipped and that provide (mostly) passive bonuses to player power.

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Avanah

Interesting indeed.

SBFord

I think it has potential, though by beta reports, people say that most bonuses are passives (never exciting), and it just feels like the Legion artifact grind again. I don't like this "grind away on X item only to have it trashed the next expansion" thing.

Xingbairong

Personally I'm happy with "resets" each expansion aka old items become obsolete, however the grind is kinda... I wanna play whatever class I want and not just 1 or 2 damn it.

ScottJeslis

That does sound interesting. I personally don't mind passives because it's one less "power" I need to decide to use over another on my general hot bar / rotation.

MadFrenchie

It doesn't seem that different from the Legendary Legion weapons, just applied to more armor pieces and no active effects...

SBFord

MadFrenchie said:

It doesn't seem that different from the Legendary Legion weapons, just applied to more armor pieces and no active effects...

Exactly. Honestly, I don't mind replacing gear from expansion to expansion. It's the grind for a single piece of something over the course of an expansion that then becomes obsolete in the first series of quests in the new expansion. I've already gotten a new sword for my Blood Death Knight in the pre-event that is better than the artifact I "slaved over" for 2 years.

MadFrenchie

SBFord said:

MadFrenchie said:

It doesn't seem that different from the Legendary Legion weapons, just applied to more armor pieces and no active effects...

Exactly. Honestly, I don't mind replacing gear from expansion to expansion. It's the grind for a single piece of something over the course of an expansion that then becomes obsolete in the first series of quests in the new expansion. I've already gotten a new sword for my Blood Death Knight in the pre-event that is better than the artifact I "slaved over" for 2 years.

Wow, yea I get that.  Running world quests and what have you to get Argunite, grinding out Relics to up the artifact weapon iLevel, only to have it be obviated by pre-patch events definitely leaves a bitter taste.  And that's just grinding after the weapons were "deactivated" and isn't including the grind for Artifact.level prior to pre-patch overhaul.

As a side note, my Paladin doesn't seem to have received any notification of the next part of the pre-patch quest.  Do you just travel to Darkshore back to Malf to pick it up??

Amathe

SBFord said:

 I don't like this "grind away on X item only to have it trashed the next expansion" thing.

Amen sister. It's why I don't play WoW anymore. 

On another point, there is a shameful lack of Titanic, Heart of the Ocean, necklace jokes in this thread.

TheDarkrayne

Meh, expansions have always rendered everything you did in the previous one obsolete. This is the way of MMOs. If there's vertical progression, an expansion is a lot like a new game.

Darksworm

TheDarkrayne said:

Meh, expansions have always rendered everything you did in the previous one obsolete. This is the way of MMOs. If there's vertical progression, an expansion is a lot like a new game.

Says someone who has never played EQ, where people were farming Tacvi well into OoW for gear, and Vex That well into PoP for items because the items were generally innovative and exciting/powerful.

Some of us have experienced what the alternatively is like - and it's glorious.  You basically had 2-3 tiers of relevant raid content at all times; not to mention farming for augments, etc. which were less thoroughly cookie cutter and had specific stats that dropped off of certain mini bosses or raids.

We didn't get the current status quo until MMORPG designers got extremely lazy and moved to the "Set Item" system (which was done largely to make less work for them, by templating half the armor of your character... EVERYONE'S CHARACTER).  Those didn't enter into EverQuest until Velious (Class Quest Armor). This Artifact 2.0 is nothing more than grind that ceases to be fun within a couple of weeks of the expansion's launch.

The sad thing is that the grind, in theory, isn't the problem.  It's the running around the same zones, for hours, day after day, month after month quest grind that got debilitatingly tiresome.

Won't make the same mistake I made last time.

Not buying.

I can't find an MMO that I find worth playing these days...  I tried FFXIV, and it's one of the most aggressively bore-inducing experiences that I've ever experienced in an MMORPG (except with blaring battle music).  Tried again at the Eureka update, and I'm 100% sure I'll never touch it again after that experience.

Something new and actually decent needs to come out soon, FFS.

MadFrenchie

Amathe said:

SBFord said:

 I don't like this "grind away on X item only to have it trashed the next expansion" thing.

Amen sister. It's why I don't play WoW anymore. 

On another point, there is a shameful lack of Titanic, Heart of the Ocean, necklace jokes in this thread.

I hear, for just 30 gold, King Anduin is willing to give you a shweet pearl necklace..



Oh yeah, I went there.

MadFrenchie

SedrynTyros said:

MadFrenchie said:

SBFord said:

MadFrenchie said:

It doesn't seem that different from the Legendary Legion weapons, just applied to more armor pieces and no active effects...

Exactly. Honestly, I don't mind replacing gear from expansion to expansion. It's the grind for a single piece of something over the course of an expansion that then becomes obsolete in the first series of quests in the new expansion. I've already gotten a new sword for my Blood Death Knight in the pre-event that is better than the artifact I "slaved over" for 2 years.

Wow, yea I get that.  Running world quests and what have you to get Argunite, grinding out Relics to up the artifact weapon iLevel, only to have it be obviaged by pre-patch events definitely.leaves a bitter taste.

As a side note, my Paladin doesn't seem to have received any notification of the next part of the pre-patch quest.  Do you just travel to Darkshore back to Malf to pick it up??

Yeah, that works.  Just head on out there and you'll get the quest prompt.  But I'd recommend you first prepare yourself for some morally grey atmosphere ... lots and lots of grrrrreeeeyyyyy.

Mmm dat "burn it all and kill everybody" kinda grey...  So grey it ties you up and whips you with sex toys in its multi-million dollar playboy apartment.

Galadourn

SBFord said:

I think it has potential, though by beta reports, people say that most bonuses are passives (never exciting), and it just feels like the Legion artifact grind again. I don't like this "grind away on X item only to have it trashed the next expansion" thing.

...which has been happening in WoW for the past 13 years or so.

Leiloni

I like gear resets because it means I don't have to play catch up. Since everyone is starting from square 1 again, it's easier to get back into the game. I'm also glad it's not a weapon because it gives me more freedom to use the weapon I want and I like that choice, not to mention it opens up more transmog options.

I'm also in favor of the abilities on the Heart of Azeroth and associated gear being passive. I dislike having too many buttons to manage, so the amount we have now seems about right on most classes, and too much on others.

SBFord

Galadourn said:

SBFord said:

I think it has potential, though by beta reports, people say that most bonuses are passives (never exciting), and it just feels like the Legion artifact grind again. I don't like this "grind away on X item only to have it trashed the next expansion" thing.

...which has been happening in WoW for the past 13 years or so.

No, it hasn't. The artifact was a single piece of equipment that was never replaced in over 2 years and that involved HUGE amounts of grind to get enough AP to fully empower it. It's very different than every other piece of equipment in Legion that was replaceable if you got lucky enough with the RNGods to get something better.That part has been going on for 13 years.

SBFord

Leiloni said:

I like gear resets because it means I don't have to play catch up. Since everyone is starting from square 1 again, it's easier to get back into the game. I'm also glad it's not a weapon because it gives me more freedom to use the weapon I want and I like that choice, not to mention it opens up more transmog options.

I'm also in favor of the abilities on the Heart of Azeroth and associated gear being passive. I dislike having too many buttons to manage, so the amount we have now seems about right on most classes, and too much on others.

Unless you're a class that, because of artifacts and the design / talents that were used with them, you're locked into the same transmog options as before. I loved playing my Frost DK up to Legion using a 2-handed sword. Devs, in their wisdom, decided that FDKs should only be able to use 2 1-handed swords and that remains in effect in BfA. 

Isn't that the same for most, if not all classes going into BfA?

TheScavenger

I think more work was done on the Legion artifact weapons, than the bfa artifact

One easy way to tell

Some of the legion artifacts actually talked and had voice dialogue

That right there shows a TON more work was put into the legion artifacts than the bfa one. Not to include that it takes more work for ACTIVE effects than passives which are much easier to make and probably a lot easier to balance.

I still bought BFA, but its obviously a filler expansion that isn't as high quality as Legion nor as epic feeling at all unless you are a pvper.

I hope they do a bait and switch (like MoP people thought it was a pvp expansion with horde vs alliance) and make it about Azshara and the Naga are actually involved and actually the "bad" guys. While horde and alliance fight each other and distracted. And then they can build up the old gods more into a huge expansion similar to Legion was.

I don't think old gods are gonna play much of a part though in BFA. Too soon. More likely Azshara is gonna be the main thing.

That or Garrosh 2.0 lol

MadFrenchie

SedrynTyros said:

If you look at how the Artifact system works, it's an odd implementation.  They put a carrot on a stick that they expect you to constantly chase after even though you know that in its current position you'll never actually reach it.  Then, as the expansion moves forward they keep moving the carrot closer and closer to your mouth ... it's still hopelessly out of reach no matter how much you chase it, but it's getting closer.  And finally, near the end of the expansion, they take the carrot off the stick and toss it right in your mouth ....  where you can chew on it for a couple of weeks before they yank it out of your mouth and shove it up your ass!  "Thanks for playing!!!"

Then Ion does a Q&A and talks about a new carrot for the next expansion.  It's odd ....

Yea, looking at it that way, it seems like Blizzard had the proverbial dollar on the fishing line and kept pulling it out of reach just as players bend over to pick it up...

winghaven1

Plays theme park mmo... complain about treadmill grind

Pick one, @SBFord

SBFord

winghaven1 said:

Plays theme park mmo... complain about treadmill grind

Pick one, @SBFord

I love treadmill, but I like new stuff along the way in all gear slots, not all minus one.
Don't be such a curmudgeon.

itchmon

Darksworm said:

TheDarkrayne said:

Meh, expansions have always rendered everything you did in the previous one obsolete. This is the way of MMOs. If there's vertical progression, an expansion is a lot like a new game.

Says someone who has never played EQ, where people were farming Tacvi well into OoW for gear, and Vex That well into PoP for items because the items were generally innovative and exciting/powerful.

Some of us have experienced what the alternatively is like - and it's glorious.  You basically had 2-3 tiers of relevant raid content at all times; not to mention farming for augments, etc. which were less thoroughly cookie cutter and had specific stats that dropped off of certain mini bosses or raids.

We didn't get the current status quo until MMORPG designers got extremely lazy and moved to the "Set Item" system (which was done largely to make less work for them, by templating half the armor of your character... EVERYONE'S CHARACTER).  Those didn't enter into EverQuest until Velious (Class Quest Armor). This Artifact 2.0 is nothing more than grind that ceases to be fun within a couple of weeks of the expansion's launch.

The sad thing is that the grind, in theory, isn't the problem.  It's the running around the same zones, for hours, day after day, month after month quest grind that got debilitatingly tiresome.

Won't make the same mistake I made last time.

Not buying.

I can't find an MMO that I find worth playing these days...  I tried FFXIV, and it's one of the most aggressively bore-inducing experiences that I've ever experienced in an MMORPG (except with blaring battle music).  Tried again at the Eureka update, and I'm 100% sure I'll never touch it again after that experience.

Something new and actually decent needs to come out soon, FFS.

Eq and eve are only 2 that come to mind that keep older content relevant for longer than just an expansion cycle.

Non coincidentally they are the 2 games to which i always return. I dont think i have had a time since 2005 where i wasnt subbed to either one.

Albatroes

SBFord said:

Galadourn said:

SBFord said:

I think it has potential, though by beta reports, people say that most bonuses are passives (never exciting), and it just feels like the Legion artifact grind again. I don't like this "grind away on X item only to have it trashed the next expansion" thing.

...which has been happening in WoW for the past 13 years or so.

No, it hasn't. The artifact was a single piece of equipment that was never replaced in over 2 years and that involved HUGE amounts of grind to get enough AP to fully empower it. It's very different than every other piece of equipment in Legion that was replaceable if you got lucky enough with the RNGods to get something better.That part has been going on for 13 years.

It depends on what you constitute as "2 years of having something" though. In WoD, you had your legendary ring which you could start working on at 98 or something like that. Before that was mop and the legendary back. Before that was Cata and the staves or w/e. The only difference was the execution, the result remained the same in what it did and ended up being by the time of the next expansion.

My problem with today's gearing system in almost every game is that you get so much gear so fast that you never appreciate getting something better because the mentality is that you need said piece in order to get something else, not because its actually good for your class. This is why 80% of the WoW community only cares about the ilvl and not the actual stat, so much so that Blizzard honestly needed to dumb down the gearing process so that the highest ilvl would always have useful stats. Before that, people were just using tank accessories and the like just to increase the ilvl. This is the fundamental flaw in the gearing ilvl process as a whole, regardless of game. Its kind of funny that wow ended up taking rift's approach in the end by making it so that your main stat (str/agi/int) has more significance in your gearing in bfa vs your secondaries. Its like asking people to think or pay attention in a grouped based environment is too much to ask for or something.

SBFord

@Albatroes Well yes and no for the ring and cloak. Those two were optional. The Artifact is definitely NOT optional.

With the cloak and ring, you could easily play the expansions without them. I did on all but 3 of my 12 characters. All were max level, but the 9 without either cloak or ring managed just fine, though in MoP, they couldn't fight Ordos, obviously. Regardless, it was tougher in some places, but not "undoable". Additionally, getting cloak or ring involved a long series of quests across a long period of time. Contrast that with AP, the two year grind to max the artifact and there's really no comparison.

Lastly, in Legion, if you didn't / don't have the artifact...well, you simply could NOT / canNOT play. There are no dropped weapons and nothing that comes close to approximating the power of the artifact. Without it, you're literally punching monsters...and you don't last too long.

Ozmodan

I won't be getting it, cannot afford the $50 for the expansion, so will continue leveling my characters in Legion.

HighMarshal

I have gotten the same sword for my prot paladin about 6 times now. It would be nice to get a shield so that I can actually use it.